BETWAY MERSEY

NOVICES’ HURDLE

(GRADE 1)

COLIN Tizzard went through a quiet spell in the weeks leading up to Aintree but is back in form now and Reserve Tank, allowed to start at 20/1, ran out a clear-cut and thoroughly deserving winner of the Mersey Novices’ Hurdle.

The starting price owed plenty to the fact that Reserve Tank’s previous two wins had come in seemingly ordinary events at Sandown and Kempton. However, this may not have been the greatest of Grade 1s and he was always going well for Robbie Power as outsider The Big Bite took them along.

In front for the second time three from the finish, he kept on strongly to beat Brewin’upastorm by just over three lengths with the hard-pulling Angels Breath and One For Rosie dead-heating for third. Nothing seemed capable of challenging the winner in the closing stages.

IMPROVED

“Reserve Tank had ulcers at Christmas and was terrible in his coat and going nowhere,” Tizzard said.

“He’s improved leaps and bounds over his last three runs and he’s a strong stayer who will probably go chasing next season.

PUNCHESTOWN PLAN

“Peter and Ross Doyle found him and Lostintranslation in point-to-point yards and sent them over. Some of the lads involved in Lostintranslation own him and I’ll have a job stopping them from taking him to Punchestown because they go over for the week!”

Tizzard and Power are quite a combination and were winning the race for the second time in three years. Their other one was Finian’s Oscar in 2017.

The trainer is more than happy to let the jockey make up his own mind regarding tactics and there is considerable mutual respect.

“He’s been good to me but so has Jessie (Harrington),” Power said.

“She lets me off on occasions to come over to ride and it works great. If she wasn’t so co-operative it wouldn’t work nearly so well.”